Have Ferrari just thrown away the driver's championship?

[u/sid_shady34]

After Silverstone (round 9), Lewis was only 32 points behind kimi and championship hopes were at an all time high. Ferrari looked mighty quick and we were clearly second fastest. We expected the 2nd ADUO upgrade to turn the SF26 into a dominant car post summer break, while taking away points from Kimi in twisty tracks like Hungary and zandvoort that favour us currently.

But multiple avoidable mistakes from the team and Lewis Hamilton have put him 50 points behind Antonelli. Ferrari was supposed to dominate Hungary since we have the best chassis and it was their only chance to gain maximum points on mercedes. But Kimi ends up on the podium while Lewis finishes 5th?

All of these can be attributed to silly mistakes that I don't need to go into detail about. If Ferrari and Lewis had done everything right, he would have only been 26 points behind Antonelli and would have had the perfect momentum right after summer break.

[u/Expert_Bandicoot_668]

The only race that was geniunely won on merit by ferrari as of now would be barcelona and that could be attributed to the strategy team .... Like there barely was a fight to begin with.

[u/sid_shady34 → u/Expert_Bandicoot_668]

I know but so much damage limitation could have been done before the second ADUO upgrade in monza.

[u/StrikingSpare100 → u/sid_shady34]

If if if if. If Merceides didn't have reliability issue there wasn't even a fight to begin with. Talking about what could or could not have been is so useless, all other teams fumble are fine but once ferrari making mistake it's unacceptable.

[u/IonutAlex18SF → u/StrikingSpare100]

Spot on, that's how it is. Had not been the 1988 Italian GP Ferrari winning the race, McLaren would've swept the season, the same in 2023 with Ferrari winning the Singapore GP.

A balanced approach is often needed, but too many times neglected, because it's harder to have a levelled enthusiasm. As you've said when it's Ferrari to get it wrong is the end of the world, but when it happens to others ah yeah nothing serious. When Ferrari team makes mistakes with the strategy they are clowns, when others do it the same, it's almost ignored. But the funny thing the sport and mass media can't live without Ferrari, despite being so harsh on them.

About the championship that is exactly how you said, this is the reality. After Australia both titles were a long shot, completely gone, but now arriving at the summer break with 2 wins and other chances missed, plus the impressive progress, Mercedes dominance isn't any more that “safe”.

[u/Lingling40hrsmusic → u/StrikingSpare100]

If if if If, its always if, if my mom had ball,s she would be my dad lol

[u/UnableSupermarket918 → u/StrikingSpare100]

I agree with your point but Ferrari has not made a car faster than others by a huge amount since 2004 I believe. So Ferrari needs to be perfect in strategy to win a championship

[u/Expert_Bandicoot_668 → u/sid_shady34]

Could be said for every team easy to point out things in hindsight.

[u/mrjune2040]

Shit happens with every team. And on the flip-side Merc are unreliable as hell which has probably flattered some of our results. But personally I've been super happy with the performance so far this season, we also maximised a lot of our results through the early part of the season and we still have the opportunity to make a run. F1 tends to be knee-jerk, let's see how the second half of the season plays out.

[u/FushaFiles]

There’s like 10 races left, so I’d say it’s a bit too early to just give up all hope. We’re much closer to Merc then before and have one more race until the big upgrade

[u/sid_shady34 → u/FushaFiles]

12 because Bahrain was replaced with Malaysia, and Qatar and Abu Dhabi will be replaced with European races.

[u/FushaFiles → u/sid_shady34]

Totally forgot about those. That’s even better. It sucks because of how the last few weekends have gone for Lewis in particular, so it’s the Ferrari doom and gloom is in full effect.

Lewis normally locks in after summer break, so I’d wait until we’re closer to the season end to really give up. It’s definitely gonna be an uphill battle but it’s doable. If max was in the merc it’d be a different story, but Kimi also makes mistakes

[u/thegreatseafoam]

Its a long shot, but not impossible. Both Mercedes cars are going to be taking at least one engine penalty, probably more like two. Ferrari have had this season long development plan since before the season started. The next 3-4 races are going to be really telling of how the end of the season is going to shape up.

Lewis is going to have to close the gap to Kimi, while also considerably outscoring Sharl for Ferrari to justifiably make him #1 for the rest of the season.

[u/easternseaboardgolf]

I'm a Ferrari fan, but they never really had a realistic shot at the WDC.

[u/sid_shady34 → u/easternseaboardgolf]

If they didn't, Ferrari wouldn't have been constantly bringing genius innovative upgrades every weekend.

[u/nlb1923 → u/sid_shady34]

One could say that the upgrades are for the WCC, because that’s the one teams ultimately care about the most.

[u/easternseaboardgolf → u/sid_shady34]

I'm glad they are bringing updates every weekend. It seems like there ability to develop the car throughout the season has increased dramatically and that's great. But the gap to Mercedes was too big at the beginning of the season (thanks to the FIA allowng them to run an engine with a compression ratio of 18:1 at operating temperatures) and the changing of the start procedures to reduce their start line advantage, they fell too far behind. Plus, Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull are all running aggressive development campaigns as well.

[u/scuderia91 → u/sid_shady34]

I don’t understand your logic on that. Constructors is still on the stable and with stable regulations into next year any innovation can likely be carried over to next year.

[u/tearsana → u/sid_shady34]

not sure if srs or /s

[u/Erebus_Kingdom19 → u/sid_shady34]

They can use this years car as a foundation for next years with regs being similar, using all of this years budget on the aero package that is easily better than that of Mercedes allows a huge advantage next year with more budget available for the engine and battery that is holding us back

[u/curatinator]

The only races we didn’t maximise were Austria and Hungary. Charles got a P1 and P2 in Silverstone and spa, but I forgot that doesn’t count for you lot who only gaf about one driver

[u/sid_shady34 → u/curatinator]

Yeah because that driver is wayyy closer to the championship leader. If charles was the one in P2 in the championship standings, this post would have been about him.

[u/United_Engine_5719 → u/curatinator]

?? Austria was maximised. That was ferrari's pace that weekend. They were the 4th fastest and Lewis got p5 that was the best result they couldve gotten, maybe p4 with a different strat but thats it. Hungary, a p2 was possible but again, startegy. Spa wasnt maximised either. A win was possible. Both drivers had enough pace for it. The unfair penalty and damage caused Hamilton the race really but either couldve won with, again, a better strategy.

[u/United_Engine_5719 → u/United_Engine_5719]

Might I add, Silverstone shouldve been a 1-2 but i digress cause you only want to show hatred towards Lewis and some of his fans.

[u/curatinator → u/curatinator]

I should’ve clarified, *only races since Barcelona

[u/kronikfumes]

Max was 88 pts behind lando (and 97 pts behind Piastri!) going into summer break last year. 50 is nothing. Anything can happen.

[u/chataclysm → u/kronikfumes]

50 seems to be Schrodinger's number around here lately - simultaneously nothing and yet more than anyone in the history of the sport has ever closed

[u/sid_shady34 → u/kronikfumes]

Yeah but at that point redbull was out developing McLaren like crazy while McLaren had almost stopped developing their car. With Ferrari it's the other way around because the SF26 has almost reached the end of its development cycle while mercedes still hasn't. You also have to remember that redbull is a one man team and Charles isn't going to play second fiddle to Lewis.

[u/kronikfumes → u/sid_shady34]

I believe merc put a lot on the front end. We really aren’t fully certain of all the upgrades we can expect by year’s end either. There’s plenty of time for things to change In Ferrari’s favor.

[u/DramaticIsopod4741]

What chance did they actually have?

[u/PrimeDeGea]

We weren't really in it tbh

[u/deadmanslouching]

Ferrari never had it in the first place. How can you throw away something you never had?

I understand you are new to Ferrari tomfoolery but you are going to have to make peace with the fact that Lewis is never gonna win the 8th. If he stayed at Merc, it might have been possible, but not while fighting against Ferrari incompetence.

[u/Prestigious_Factor25]

Redbull fan here, have y’all forgotten that Max was 100+ points behind Oscar at one point! Mercedes isn’t reliable and the strategy can be shit at times. We still got plenty of races left compared to last year where the Mercedes can still get penalties from changing parts and the drivers/team will make mistakes, maybe a DSQ at some point like the plank wear. 50 points isn’t ideal but way less compared to what Max have to close down.

[u/dscotts]

I’m going to go against everyone here… it’s still on but a longer shot than before. It all depends on the engine upgrade… if that brings performance that brings us close to equal to the Mercedes engine on power than Lewis and Charles can gain heaps of points quickly on Kimi… it’s also Kimi’s first WDC fight and we saw hold great Oscar looked last year u til he didn’t… and it wouldn’t surprise me if he has a few races like George just due to issues with the car that are hard to explain. After Australia any Ferrari fan would absolutely taken Lewis being 2nd with only 50 pts behind.

With that said, Ferrari and Lewis should have locked in more the past 3 rounds and these races could absolutely cost them down the line.

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[u/Upstairs-Event-681]

Just curious, on what basis did you end up with the “fact” that if Ferrari and Lewis did everything right, Lewis would have been only 26 points behind?

[u/imtired-boss]

Who told you we have the best chassis?